A total of 2,791 Tampa voters showed up at the polls in the first five hours of voting Tuesday.

By noon Tuesday, 2,791 Tampa voters showed up at the polls.

If that pace doesn't pick up as the day goes on, total turnout might not hit 12 percent, making this Tampa's primary election with the lowest turnout since at least 1971.

Going into today's citywide municipal elections, turnout from absentee ballots and early voting stood at 18,345, or about 8.7 percent of the city's 211,158 registered voters.

And before early voting started, Hillsborough elections officials wondered whether more than half the ballots in the race would be cast before election day. (That's what happened in Hillsborough in 2012 and 2014.)

The number for Tampa voters to beat is 15 percent, the turnout for then-Mayor Pam Iorio's easy re-election in 2007 over two much-less-well-known candidates.

St. Petersburg's $90 million water cost stabilization fund is designed to help offset the increase in water bills for city residents. But the city's cautious investment strategy yielded limited returns. So council member Jim Kennedy led an effort to rewrite the city's investment protocols to allow $20 million of the fund to be put into the stock market.

The city invested the money in five index funds last month. The low-fee, relatively safe financial instruments rise and fall according to the broader market, and also pay didvidends. The plan is any gains to be split 50-50 with half being transferred back to the cost stabilization fund and the other half used to grow the $20 million prinicipal to bring higher returns in the future.

Although risk is inherent in equities, Kennedy says the city isn't going to try to time the market.

"This is a long term strategy," he said.

Water costs will probably rise for customers, just not as fast as they otherwise would, said Anne Fritz, the city's finance director. …

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn gestures as he talks with voter Laurence Salkin, a water taxi operator known around town as "Capt. Larry," and Jim Porter, a volunteer for Tampa City Council member Harry Cohen, after voting Tuesday morning at the Marjorie Park Marina on Davis Islands.

By his count, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn says he's been involved in seven citywide campaigns since coming to Tampa in the 1980s, so he sounded a touch wistful — "my last vote in my last mayoral campaign" — as he left the polls Tuesday.

But the mayor's wife, Dr. Cathy Lynch Buckhorn, saw the bright side.

"It's much less stressful," she said, than it was in 2011, when Buckhorn fought his way out of a five-candidate primary, then headed into the runoff with almost nothing left in the bank. "I wasn't out holding as many signs as the last time."

Of his daughters, Grace and Colleen, who accompanied their parents to the polls, Buckhorn said, "the girls got to vote. They're Irish. They voted a few times."

Go to tampabay.com/kyc for Know Your Candidates overviews of each race, plus background information on each candidate’s education, career, community involvement, financial disclosure and endorsements received. There are also in-depth Q&A’s with each candidate on issues that include his or her priorities on council, mass transit, code enforcement, neighborhood services, the waterfront and Jeff Vinik’s planned redevelopment of downtown Tampa.

Toledo faces Tommy Castellano and Guido Maniscalco in Tuesday's city election. District 6 covers West Tampa and parts of South Tampa. Maniscalco is the Democrat in the race, which is officially nonpartisan. Toledo is Republican. Castellano is registered independent.

The Cuban sandwich pictured on City Council member Mike Suarez's campaign mailer includes lettuce and tomatoes, but Suarez said he's not trying to take a side.

Lettuce and tomato on a Cuban sandwich?

Tampa politics doesn’t have much that could qualify as a purity test, but this might be it.

So when voter Danny Thro got a campaign mailer from City Council member Mike Suarez that had a picture of a Cuban with lettuce and tomato, he paused.

“I'm a vegetarian and imagine a Cuban sandwich to be my weak spot if I ever go back to eating meat,” Thro said Monday in an email to Bay Buzz. “Maybe that's why I looked so closely.”

Such is the place of the Cuban in Tampa. So Thro initiated this email exchange with Suarez:

Thro: what kind of sandwich is this in yr ad?

Suarez: A Cuban Sandwich, of course.

Thro: I think I see lettuce and tomato...where's the pickle? (I don't think Steve Otto would approve). I might add that i received 5 ads in today's mail and you are the only candidate to include contact info. that's a good thing. thanks. and good luck,

Suarez:I appreciate the good luck but I hope I've earned your vote.

On Monday, Suarez said the sandwich portrayed on his mail piece was, well, more non-traditional than traditional. He said he was not taking a side. …

But a neighbor of Pedicini’s who supports Toledo’s opponent, Guido Maniscalco, says he saw Pedicini and Molina moving Toledo campaign signs between an SUV and the garage of Pedicini’s condominium on Thursday morning.

“I was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’ “ said Chris Arnoldi, who lives across a paved courtyard from Pedicini’s home in a Palma Ceia Pines condominium complex. “That was the guy that he said he didn’t know.”

Arnoldi, 31, said he was out walking his West Highland terriers, Roscoe and Willie, when Pedicini and Molina arrived at the complex late Thursday morning. He said he recognized Molina because he had been following news coverage of the race in Tampa City Council District 6, had earlier read a Tampa Bay Times article about Moving Tampa Forward, Pedicini and Molina, and had that day looked at photos of Molina and Pedicini on Facebook. …

Turnout on the fourth day of early voting picked up a bit as 346 voters went to the polls Thursday. That pushed overall turnout so far to nearly 7.4 percent with three days left of early voting and election day next Tuesday. At this point, absentee ballots account for more than 91 percent of all ballots cast.

Here are the precincts whose residents so far have voted the most (and the least):

You might not think that the pace of early voting in Tampa could get any more slack, but that's what happened Wednesday.

Just 299 Tampa voters cast ballots during the third day of early voting, down from 341 and 352 the first two days. That brought the total number of ballots cast to 14,343, or about 6.7 percent of all Tampa voters. (About 93 percent of ballots cast so far were mailed in as absentee votes.)

Precincts in South Tampa continue to have the highest turnout for the March 3 election. Here's a look at the highest and lowest rates of turnout so far:

The second day of early voting for Tampa's March 3 primary pushed the city's overall turnout above 6 percent, but just barely.

So far, Tampanians have cast a total of 12,829 ballots — 12,136 absentees, 693 through early voting and two provisional. On Tuesday, 352 voters cast ballots through early voting, 11 more than on Monday.

So far, here are the precincts with the highest and lowest rates of turnout:

The Pinellas County Commission sent that message Tuesday by unanimously approving a resolution that "urges the Florida Legislature to pass legislation to expand health care in Florida."

The resolution, brought for consideration by Commissioner Janet Long, doesn't use the words "Medicaid expansion," but states that the county "supports any expansion of health care that draws down Florida's rightful share of federal funds and increases access to health coverage for our citizens."

The resolution notes that nearly 50,000 Pinellas County residents who live at or near the poverty level and would be eligible for health care expansion, including access to coverage for mental health care, and that the county spends more than $21 million a year to provide health care to roughly 7,000 residents who fall into the coverage gap.

Commissioners said the recent news that Florida is not expected to receive $1.3 billion in federal funds -- the Low Income Pool prorgram -- used to to help hospitals treat poor and uninsured patients has ramped up the sense of urgency. …

In the heat of last month's firing of Hillsborough County schools superintendent MaryEllen Elia, Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn had some strong and gender-specific words for the School Board members who ran her off. "Mean girls" was one phrase he used.

Might that characterization cost Buckhorn some female votes? Is he worried? Having second thoughts?

Not so much.

When asked about the quote during a party for Elia Monday might, Buckhorn had this to say:

"As the father of two daughters, I do everything I can to empower them. I expect my daughters to have the same chances as anybody else. That was a reference to a TV show."

He stood by the way he has characterized the board members. "It has nothing to do with making any derogatory comments," he said. "It was all about castigating and condemning a bad decision ... by certain school board members who happen to be women. I would have said the same thing if they were men."

The words just might be different, and not gender-specific. "I would have called it juvenile, I would have called it similar to eighth grade."

Who is the Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union 123 supporting in Tampa City Council District 6?

Jackie Toledo?

Well, there’s that $1,000 check Toledo got from the union on Nov. 20. And there’s the Dec. 4 letter from union business manager Todd Vega saying the union “was proud to support Jackie Toledo for City Council District 6. We feel that Jackie’s enthusiasm, determination and strong commitment will serve the residents of Tampa and the City Council well. We are very pleased to endorse a candidate such as Jackie.”

How about Guido Maniscalco?

There’s another $1,000 check that the union has now written to Maniscalco’s campaign. And that check came with another announcement from Vega on Monday: “Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union 123 is proud to offer its SOLE endorsement of Guido Maniscalco in the Tampa City Council District 6 race. Guido has proven himself to be a person of integrity and commitment who upholds the values of Tampa’s working families. We put our full support behind Guido’s candidacy and the ideals he represents.” …

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